The 52nd Ordnance Group Combat Service ID Badge replicates the unit’s Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI) which was approved for wear on 5 June 1995. Combat Service Identification Badges were introduced as the new Army Service Uniform’s equivalent of the SSI worn on the shoulder Army Green Service uniform that was discontinued in 2015 and are worn on the right side of the ASU and the Mess/Evening Mess Uniforms. Specific wear guidance is found in the “Identification Badges” section of Department of the Army Pamphlet 670-1.
As a component of the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) Command, the 52nd Ordnance Group frequently deploys teams to support humanitarian mine actions as part of the U.S. State Department’s Conventional Weapons Destruction, which incorporated the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program that was inaugurated in 1993. Since that time, nearly $3 billion has been spent to remove and render harmless land mines and unexploded ordnance, as well as destroy unsecured munitions and weapons.
In 2016, for example, elements of the 52nd were deployed to Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Tajikistan, and Tunisia to provide assistance and training in the identification, disarming, and disposal of UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) and land mines. Although 2017 saw deployments of smaller teams to multiple nations in Africa, the 723rd Ordnance Company of the 184th Ordnance Battalion carried on the mission of training indigenous technicians in the detection and removal of ordnance threats.
Related Items
52nd Ordnance Group Patch (SSI)
52nd Ordnance Group Unit Crest (DUI)